<p>In my opinion, MIT has the greatest wow factor. As in, wow you go there, you are a f***ing genius.</p>
<p>""school isn't defined by how good it is statistically, its what you get out of it, whether it be community college or HYP"</p>
<p>I agree, because many great people never even went to college."</p>
<p>To be fair, however, those were different times. A bachelor's degree is the equivialent of an HS diploma 30+ years ago.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Stanford
= lol rankings. where do you live? Williams? I've never even heard of it...</li>
</ol>
<p>My rankings:
1. Harvard (everyone knows about it, come on, let's be honest)
2. Stanford (strange relatives in Indian village knew about it... I trust that it's pretty famous. Also, IIT students' number 1 graduate choice, so my choice)
3. MIT, Yale, Princeton</p>
<p>Harvard and Stanford are easily the top in prestige nationally and internationally. West of the Mississippi, Stanford is the best, and east of the Mississippi Harvard is the best. MIT is also super well known compared to other schools internationally.</p>
<p>In my opinion, HSMYP should be the new acronym instead of HYPSM.</p>
<p>Outside the U.S., Harvard and MIT; inside, Harvard, Yale Princeton Stanford/MIT/Caltech (tied).</p>
<p>Harder question is what's after that? I would say Columbia, U Chicago, Dartmouth/Brown (tie) Penn and then the rest.</p>
<p>using the original universities it is definitly.....</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
</ol>
<p>People put Duke so high. I would never turn down an IVY to go there. Most people go there to watch the basketball, but that's not a good reason.</p>
<p>Prestige is pretty useless... but.. ill do it for the hell of it.</p>
<p>Internationally (my relatives in China(common city people) pretty much knows these...):
1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. MIT,Berkeley (Berk is like the graduate college of choice for those from Xinhua (China's MIT))
5. Princeton
6. Columbia
What The F**k is Brown,Dartmouth,Cornell,Penn,Williams or Swarthmore? </p>
<p>Personally:
1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. Yale,Princeton,MIT,Caltech
4. Columbia, Wharton
5. Brown, Berkeley, Duke</p>
<p>I'll do this based on "wow" factor, which in my opinion is a little different from pure prestige. Also, it's based on my opinion and is not backed by any scientific data whatsoever.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard (most famous and considered the best)</li>
<li>MIT (you're considered an amazing genius if you go there)</li>
<li>Yale (the last three president's being from yale has considerably helped its prestige)</li>
<li>Stanford / Princeton (tied, although i'll give the edge to stanford)</li>
<li>CalTech (very hard to get into, very hard to stay in, but unfortunately no one knows about it, not even the people who live in LA / Pasadena)</li>
<li>Duke/ Columbia/ Penn/ Berkeley/ Brown/ Dartmouth/ Cornell (all very good schools that you can't really separate in terms of prestige..it depends a lot on the region, field, etc.)</li>
<li>Swarthmore (relativey few people know about it)</li>
<li>Williams ...where's williams???</li>
</ol>
<p>I think world-wide prestige goes something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Non-HYPS ivies</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
</ol>
<p>the thing is...
because college sports are so big here, prestige can be a bit skewed...
schools like duke, stanford, and cal (berkeley)get a LOT of attention because of athletics</p>
<p>gutrade - go to China and see how many people know Dartmouth,Penn,Cornell or Brown... in terms of worldwide prestige, there is no way that those schools end up above berkeley... just look at the rankings coming out of Shanghai and London.</p>
<p>Oh but I was only talking about undergraduate quality prestige. I doubt people in Asia think as highly of Berkeley undergrad as they do of Berkeley grad. Berkeley's undergraduate admissions are easier than the ones higher on the list. But yeah, for graduate school I would say Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley would dominate.</p>
<p>a kid from my school turned down harvard, princeton, yale, and so on for MIT. To rank these wonderful universities and LACs against each other is absolutely absurd. you can't compare columbia with swarthmore. it's like comparing apples with oranges; every case is different.</p>
<p>
[quote]
a kid from my school turned down harvard, princeton, yale, and so on for MIT. To rank these wonderful universities and LACs against each other is absolutely absurd. you can't compare columbia with swarthmore. it's like comparing apples with oranges; every case is different.
[/quote]
No that just means he/she believed that MIT is better. Comparing one college with another is essential.</p>
<p>i think that redbull is correct.</p>
<p>we can make a overall compairison, but that is absurd.</p>
<p>everything is relative.</p>
<p>for someone like me, a school with a soccer team means a lot more to me.
for others a football team may mean everything.</p>
<p>it is impossible to make an accurate "prestige ranking" without having a full sample of everyone, in every part of the world. as most people know (don't you?), sample populations may be used to find an APPROXIMATE idea of what the (crap forgot the word...) something population. It is like a poll or survey. we may get a general idea, but if you notice, there is ALWAYS a little note at the bottom saying "margin of error... x percentage points" usually around 3-6. with something like this, we lack the tools to make a completely fair and accurate comparison.</p>
<p>NOTHING AND NO ONE is exactly the same. everything is different. for any of you taking a philosophy, you may have heard of Null-A logic (non-aristotelian). developed by alfred korzybski in the early 1900s. the idea is that nothing is the same as anything else at any point in history. it removes us from the aristotelian idea where black and white, yes and no, bad and good are evenly split, and brings us towards a more dynamic and fluid way of thinking.</p>
<p>because nothing is the same we cannot have "our own prestige ranking". we can ask for input from various different regions of the world, and different socioeconomic backgrounds to compare.</p>
<p>mensa 160, are you a "mensa" with 160 as your iq?</p>
<p>Hmmm..</p>
<p>1) Ivy-League schools + near-Ivies (Stanford, MIT, Duke etc.)
2) Berkeley, UMichigan, Caltech, Gatech, Emory
3) Top-LACs (Amherst, midd, pomona etc.)</p>
<p>i think prestige-wise it'd have to be the lottery schools</p>
<p>HYPSM - harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, and MIT... its hard to rate them cuz if you get into 1 of the 5, you'll most likely be happy enough to matriculate there</p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>"People put Duke so high. I would never turn down an IVY to go there. Most people go there to watch the basketball, but that's not a good reason."</p>
<p>Wow. I would love to see the actual data that validates such a statement!
This seems to be a major CC myth promulgated by sheer ignorance. Do you really think that kids with such wonderful credentials (as those held by Duke matriculants) actually choose a school based on the single fact that they like to watch basketball? The fact that Duke has a good basketball team with a big support from students may suggest to prospective students that the social atmosphere at Duke may be more fun than some of their other choices. I would guess that many kids that go to Duke could actually care less about basketball, but attend the games and get excited about the team after they matriculate as a measure of their strong pride for their school!</p>
<p>like another poster said, its all relative. heres my opinion of what "prestige" would be for the schools that the OP posted. </p>
<p>Harvard
Stanford
Yale
MIT
Princeton
Berkeley
Columbia
Cornell
Penn
Dartmouth
Duke
Brown
Williams
Swarthmore</p>
<p>and then heres my general prestige list of schools that will give off some very positive response when you say your kid goes there:</p>
<p>Harvard
Stanford
Yale
MIT
Cal Tech
Princeton
Berkeley</p>
<p>columbia, penn, and cornell might make that list. and im sure theres a bunch of regional "wows", like in california, UCLA is highly respected. youll get "wows" about texas and texas a&m in texas. </p>
<p>ok yea anyway, prestige is liked overdone here on CC, and for all those readers, make sure prestige isnt your only factor in deciding which college you want to attend. the best college is the one where you fit in best.</p>